Ofsted and the government should stop reducing students to statistics and think carefully about the people they talk about. Photograph: Alamy

“Too much teaching in English and mathematics [by further education providers] is not good enough,” said Ofsted in a recent report. There’s no disputing the crux of this statement; English and maths teaching could be better. You only have to look at last year’s global rankings by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to see that England lies 22nd for literacy and 21st for numeracy out of 24 nations. And recent GCSE results in the further education sector do little to reassure concerns, with a mere 6.5% of learners achieving a grade C or above in English and 7% in maths.

But these statistics only shine a crude light on what’s happening with young peoples’ basic skills. There are many issues to consider before criticising the sector. Ofsted, let me enlighten you.

Number one. The students you’re talking about in the report are being forced to retake subjects that they have struggled with for years at school. Often they only come to the college to learn their trade and have little interest in studying a subject that has caused them so much stress and anxiety. To give you an idea of the scale of the problem, 50% of people join a college without a grade C in English and maths. That is a lot of people who the state education system has let down or been unable to help.

I have seen teachers spend hours making resources relevant to what students are training in. But, as soon as you put 20 learners in a room to repeat a subject they’ve hated for years, there’s a huge problem. In one lesson, I observed an English tutor teaching 18 automotive students, several of whom had learning difficulties and none of whom saw the subject as important. She worked alone, without any special educational needs support. Despite setting them stimulating activities, she struggled to manage behaviour and engage the students – I doubt whether even a 6% success rate would have been achieved in this class.

At times, of course there is poor teaching. But we have to recognise the huge challenge tutors face. Expecting a teacher to achieve something in 36 weeks that countless people have failed to do for the past 11 years is simply unrealistic.

Number two. Many of the people teaching English and maths in further education don’t have a grade C themselves and haven’t been properly trained to deliver these subjects. Yes, £30m has recently been invested in recruitment and training. But with every college in the country recruiting from the same crop of talent at once, how can everyone appoint a high quality candidate? There are simply too few decent teachers to go around. A one-off golden hello – albeit at £10,000 – isn’t going to attract many of the best English and maths graduates because these people could be earning double elsewhere.

This leaves many colleges in a situation where they have to train existing staff. Some colleges send tutors to subject knowledge enhancement courses, others ask people to retake the GCSE in their own time. Yes, that’s right, their own time. In my experience, the number of people who do this are relatively small, but it does happen. Regardless of the route taken to upskill, courses are often completed on top of an already heavy workload, with no extra pay. An ex-colleague of mine found it such a struggle that she had to drop out of her course due to stress.

The only reason she was doing it was to save her job. On several occasions, I have seen a college reorganise its curriculum areas to “save jobs”. This is often a result of cuts to the funding of certain qualifications – in some cases a 50% reduction. To prevent redundancies, managers relocate staff to teach English, maths and any other subject they can find some hours for.

Number three. Last year was the first year the 16 to 19 study programme was run by further education providers, which includes compulsory English and maths development. Give reforms a chance to work – change takes time. In many instances, colleges are making reasonable improvements under the circumstances. Some colleges have been sharing expertise by creating cross-college English and math teams. Let us not forget that although results weren’t great last year, there will be thousands of learners who will have improved and still be working towards passing their English and maths. They’re just not reflected in the statistics yet.

Finally, I would like to make a suggestion to Ofsted and the government. Stop looking at the numbers. We are working in education and you cannot reduce students to a statistic. Rather than throw millions at the problem and expect overnight improvements, dig a little deeper into what’s happening and think carefully about the people you’re talking about.

The Secret College Tutor works at a large further education college in the Midlands and has many years of experience as a teacher and advanced practitioner.

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